This invention relates to mechanisms for dispensing tickets in a serial fashion.
Ticket dispensing mechanisms are used in a variety of applications. In the arcade gaming industry, for example, there is a trend toward expanding the use of redemptive games. These are games of skill that pay off in terms of tickets that can be redeemed for merchandise. Such games use ticket dispensing mechanisms to dispense the appropriate number of tickets. Tickets are dispensed under the control of a controlling device coupled to the game that determines the number of tickets to be issued. Tickets are typically handled in the form of a continuous roll or strip of tickets, with perforations or notches between the tickets.
Ticket dispensing mechanisms should provide means for validating tickets by placing some form of easily identifiable mark on the tickets to prove that they were dispensed by the mechanism. Validation prevents customers from redeeming tickets obtained from any source other than the dispensing mechanism.
Ticket dispensing mechanisms should also provide a locking means to block the withdrawal of unearned tickets by a customer. Otherwise, the customer could simply pull on the tickets protruding from the mechanism and obtain more tickets than he is entitled to.